Hundreds of fast food employees protested on Monday in the streets of New York City, demanding higher wages and kicking off a string of scheduled demonstrations across the United States.
Over 500 workers gathered in the streets to rally yesterday. Low-wage employees of fast food chains such as McDonald's, KFC, and Wendy's are on strike this week for the right to unionize and to double the minimum wage to $15 an hour from the $7.25 an hour that many of these city workers now face, according to Reuters.
Fry-cooks, cashiers, burger-flippers, custodial staff and delivery-people called out ifor bigger paychecks in the Bronx, downtown Brooklyn and midtown Manhattan, sparking over 300 to congregate in Union Square. Strikers could be heard chanting, “Hold the burgers hold the fries, make our wages super-sized!" according to NY Daily News
Though $7.25 meets industry standards for pay, it does not meet the standard of living for those paid that wage. Most fast-food workers are paid 10,000 and $18,000 a year and live way below poverty-level according to New York Communities for Change.
The strikers were more than frustrated. A Brooklyn McDonald employee, Kareem Starks, explained, "Remaining silent is not an option because it's nearly impossible to survive on $7.25 an hour."
There are huge opponents of the protests, because raising the minimum wage so drastically would hurt businesses and individuals alike. In response to the strike, major fast-food corporations put out a full-page ad in USA Today that explained how giving in to demands would increase unemployment.
Additionally, Scott DeFife of the National Restaurant Association said how doing so would result in a "significant effect on the private sector's ability to create jobs, especially those typically filled by first-time workers and teens,” speaking in response to McDonald’s comment requests.
President Barack Obama and many in his administration have proposed minimum wage hikes to help lift Americans out of poverty, but the Washington, D.C.-based Employment Policies Institute (EPI) disagrees with how the overall effect for employees will play out.
United States fast-food corporations make up a $200 billion industry, and its greatest expense is already labor. The EPI reacted to the strikes with the explanation that a $15 minimum wage would force fast-food chain operators to "replace employees with less-costly, automated alternatives like touch-screen ordering and payment devices."
"The dollar menu is going to be the $5 menu and (restaurants) are going to lose sales, or they're going to have to find a way to provide the same product with less service," said EPI research director Michael Saltsman, according to Reuters.
Protests are expected in Chicago, Detroit, Flint, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and St. Louis as strikers gain support from unions, as well as community and religious groups.
Photo courtesy of Tumblr.
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